after five (long) years of silence, tiamat released a new album, amanethes. when i listened to a few samples around one month ago, i didn’t like it too much. i still bought it (hey, it’s a tiamat album!) and, after listening to it a few times, the ice melted, turned into fire. this album is amazing. heavy, dark, gothic. probably one of the best releases this year.

today i visited the rock sound festival in huttwil, switzerland. just for one day though, with one specific aim: to see the second band, opeth. before opeth, black tide played, which was ok. after opeth, the headliner for this evening played, namely avantasia was playing, from which we basically just saw the beginning of the first song they played, when we decided to leave (so guess how much we liked it).
ok. having seen opeth just recently, i was in particular curious on what they would play this time. unfortunately, the set list was pretty similar to the last one: they started with demon of the fall, continued with master’s apprentice, then with baying of the hounds, then to rid the disease, wreath, heir apparent and the drappery falls. and again, the sound quality and in particular the mixing was pretty suboptimal. but, an important difference was the denseness of people. the hall in which the concerts took place was filled, but with enough gaps to be able to breathe without problems (and not even being touched most of the time). and, there was no mosh pit. so one could stand in peace, enjoy the music, and throw some hair around without having to fear to be stomped to death or getting injured otherwise.
though there was another bad thing. namely, the infantile behaviour of some people in the audience, most notably by whistling loudly (which is really nice if people do that next to your ear, big fuck you‘s to them) or start clapping rythmically to certain parts of the music (hey, is this musikantenstadl?!)… well, shame on you, guys.
anyway. this trip was definitely worth it. opeth rocked the house again, and even though i already heard that set list, i still enjoyed it a lot. probably in particular also because of the way nicer atmosphere. and, mikael promised that opeth will come back in the end of this year! :-) and, last not but least, i had really nice companions. not being alone at concerts rocks!

sometimes, i really hate computers. in particular, when wanting to hear music on my macbook, which runs osx. so far, i haven’t found any good music player.
the first thing i tried is itunes. it seems to be nice, but it’s support for an externally managed music library (i want to synchronize the library between several computers, whence i cannot let itunes organize the library) is sucking. there is a way to scan an existing directory with music, but it is incredibly slow. maybe one second per file? at least, this is not acceptable.
on linux, i’m using amarok, which has a lot of bugs, but runs pretty neat otherwise. (so far the best thing i found.) version 2.0 is supposed to be available on osx, too, but i’ve waiting for that one since more than a year, and it’s still not there. there’s a version which you can compile yourself, but it will compile for more than 24 hours, as it requires all the kde libraries. i don’t want to do that.
another choice is exaile, an amarok clone for gtk (gnome), which i have to try under linux. at least, under osx, i’ve not been able to run it, i have several python versions installed due to fink and darwinports, but it needs some more libraries and i don’t want to spend hours or days or weeks to find out which ones and how to install them.
well, and then, there’s xmms, a winamp 2.x clone, more or less dead for a long time. but i got it installed (via fink or darwinport, forgot which one), but my version features non-readable mp3 id3 tags and certain other quirks. but at least, it runs and plays music.
it really, really annoys me that it seems not to be able to install a decent player without spending lots of time. why on earth no one is able to provide a precompiled package for amarok? or make exaile run on osx? or any other more or less decent music player? why just itunes and xmms?!
i have even considered throwing osx away and installing something like ubuntu on my macbook, but that also sucks, as ubuntu might have problems with the wireless network, and then i have to find out how to set up an encrypted hard disk, which is possible but requires some more work than just five minutes.
when does the new age of computing begins, where one does not has so much trouble anymore?
i’m completely pissed of. seriously.

this evening i experienced another concert, an instance of the progressive nation 2008 tour, featuring four bands all doing different kind of prog.
the opener was 3, a woodstock based prog/experimental rock band. they are really fantastic, and i have to get one of their albums—the ones at the concert were already sold out when i tried to get one. besides playing great music, they also had a great life performance. there were two bad things though, even though the band has nothing to do with them: first, lots of people decided its fun to smoke weed. i don’t care what people do to themself, but it’s pretty annoying to smell that all over the place without having the chance to go somewhere else. the second, way worse thing, was that some people decided to start a mosh pit. again, anyone might feel to do what he wants, but i hate it to get kicked and pushed around all the time without asking for it. in particular, a mosh pit might fit well to a metalcore band, but to a prog band?! geez…
well. the second band, between the buried and me, was a metalcore band—a prog metalcore band. i’ve never been a fan of metalcore, and this gig didn’t made that better. obviously, the situation in the front didn’t got any better, the mosh pit simply got larger…
then, after surviving this one, the main part of the evening began: opeth entered the stage. unfortunately, at the beginning, the accustics weren’t too great; for example, the keyboard was pretty quiet and sometimes hardly audible—even at parts where it basically was the only instrument playing. fortunately, this changed later. since the whole tour already played in calgary yesterday, they had a slightly different playlist today. yesterday, it apparently was master’s apprentice / baying of the hounds / in my time of need / wreath / heir apparent / the drapery falls. today, they apparently started with demon of the fall—which was a bit hard to grab, as the keys were too quiet and a certain mosh pit pretty annoying (though that got better later, maybe the kids got tired?). after that, they played baying of the hounds or beneath the mire—have to listen to them again, i think. the third song was to rid the disease, my favorite song from the proggy damnation album. after that, they played heir apparent—something from the new album, which really rocked, i’m really looking forward for it—and the drappery falls. then, mikael noticed that he screwed up the set list, i.e. that they had enough time to play one more song. they decided to play wreath from the deliverance album, which i’m really really happy about: so far, i’ve never heard that song life, and i really like it a lot. unfortunately, as it’s a really heavy song, it again got pretty uncomfortable in the front. i still managed to throw my hair around, in particular at the end of the song. then, it was over.
after that, i decided to buy something to drink; it was some banana smoothie. somehow it looks like my stomach didn’t like the idea too much, so i wasn’t feeling too good afterwards, as dream theater began to play. shortly after they began, i decided to sit down at the back of the hall. besides not feeling too good, the concert was nice. they started off with in the presence of enemies and also played a lot older stuff, for example from the scenes from a memory album, one of my favorites. after their first part, a funny video showing some super mario sequences with dream theater references put in was shown, with both dream theater music in gameboy style and real music. the encore began with some improvisation, first by jordan rudess on some cute electronic device, then accompanied by john petrucci, and later by the other band members, which turned into a pretty cool medley.
too bad it’s over.
if there wouldn’t have been some annoying people around, and if maybe between the buried and me wouldn’t have played and 3 and opeth played much longer, it would be definitely the best concert this year. it still is a very good one, but as it was it has tight competition, for example the symphony x show in hamburg. but then, in particular 3 rocked the house, and i have to take a closer look on them. the new opeth album also sounds very promising, at least the two songs i’ve heard so far: heir apparent today and the porcelain heart video. and, i just saw, roadrunner offers the lotus eater for download. have to check that out, too…

yesterday i made a trip to hamburg, to visit two friends and to attend a concert by eläkeläiset (meaning: the retirees), a humppa band from suomi. their concept is simple: they sit at a table, drinking beer and vodka, playing with their instruments, covering lots of pop, rock and metal songs, playing them in a faster humppa style, with different lyrics which are mainly in finnish. sounds strange, but they collected a pretty huge fan community in particular in germany (whyever). we really had lots of fun there, even though we weren’t drunk like most of the other people there (including the band).

sitting there, almost asleep, killing time by listening to music on youtube, finally getting the idea to go sleeping, saying good night, playing a last song, one from anathema, called a simple mistake. starting slowly, then, after one half, exploding into a masterpiece of emotions, feelings, grabbing me, tearing me along. so intense, so powerful. this will keep me awake four hours, i guess, not allowing me to rest, to sleep. i hope they really do a tour this year, headlining it, as they promised last year…

the second one this year i attended, to be more precise. this time, in bremen’s tivoli, the so called paganfest tour 2008 launched, featuring the finnish bands ensiferum, korpiklaani and moonsorrow, the swiss band eluveitie, the faroese band týr and local support ctulu.
well. apparently, it’s impossible to start a concert (or even, start letting people in, before they get soaked wet in the rain outside) in time, i.e. the time which was published before. i’m really sorry for the ones who probably have to spend today in bed, being sick. and then, when they started letting people in, they did it in an incredibly slow way. i mean, what the heck, how hard is it to organize such things?
anyway, the local support started playing probably when the first people were let inside, i.e. we missed half of it, and some others probably most or everything (if they didn’t die before). well, anyway, they didn’t missed anything but awful noise. you could replace the singer by a barking dog without changing the result. sorry, this sounds hard, but that’s the truth… well, the sound quality sucked a lot in the beginning anyway, so it’s probably not just the fault of the band… after a short break (the openers played for like 30 mins), týr entered the stage. i was expecting a lot, but was heavily disappointed. it seemed that they also experienced heavy technical problems, so i might try them again once… but then, i’ll try some studio recordings.
anyway. they stopped after like 20 minutes (less than the opener!?) and we took the chance to eat something. after that, swiss pagan metallers eluveitie entered the stage. filling the stage with eight musicians, they are probably the largest (in this sense) band i ever say. eluveitie features a variety of instruments, including lots of different fluetes, vielles, hurdy gurdies, bagpipes, uilleann pipes and bodhráns. i also was expecting a lot from them, and this time, i was blown away. they are really good. mixing heavy black metal with beautiful folk melodies and themes, they deliver a complex, hard to digest but extremely beautiful (even though the sound quality still wasn’t too great) stream of music. (now i’m listening to their newest album slania, whose release party in the knochenhaus i missed… it’s definitely worth buying, if you’re wondering.) a very, very sad thing was that eluveitie had to stop after 30 minutes. :-(
then, after another break, moonsorrow started playing. as you may know, moonsorrow is one of my favorite bands, so i was expecting a lot. well, they were good as usual, but this time i didn’t like the songs they selected too much. one of the songs sounded quite unknown to me, maybe it’s from the ep which will be released soon? well, sounded a bit too black metallish for my taste. at least, they could play for 45 minutes… still, way too short, but better than just 30 mins… (hey, really, which idiot got the idea to restrict great bands such as eluveitie and moonsorrow to 30 resp. 45 minutes?!)
after moonsorrow, it was time for korpiklaani, a bunch of guys making “old guy music with heavy metal guitars”. well, after eluveitie and moonsorrow, it became obvious how simple their melodies and songs are, well, of course relatively. anyway, if they would have played earlier i would have liked them more. apparently, they covered a king crimson song, at least so said a friend of mine who knows the king crimson discography by worlds better than me. as moonsorrow, korpiklaani also just played for 45 minutes.
finally, after yet another break, which we spend sitting in the food compartment of the tivoli, ensiferum began conquering the hall. well. they’re really good, but again, in my opionion, moonsorrow and eluveitie are better. at least, their guitarist was feeling better this time, so they played probably for one hour. probably, because we decided we were too tired and had enough after, say, 55 minutes, and after someone working at the tivoli decided to chase us off the stairs where we were sitting (because of some fire regulations, probably)…
anyway. the festival was definitely worth going there. but, the next time, it would be way better if they would reduce the number of bands (to, say, moonsorrow and eluveitie :-) ) and let them play a lot longer!

yesterday i stumbled about the gathering‘s latest live dvd, a noise severe, recorded in march 2007 in chile. a few months later, their singer, anneke van giersbergen, quit the band. (which, in my opinion, is the end of the band; if they will continue, they will be something very different…)
the dvd contains a lot of songs from their older albums, like the “debut” mandylion (their first album with anneke and, in my opionion, their best one), nighttime birds, how to measure a planet? (which i don’t like too much) and if_then_else. the first two can be more categorized as atmospheric doom with progmetal and gothic influences, while how to measure a planet? drifts off into a very experimental alternative rock/prog direction; the last, if_then_else, is more into a trip rock.
well, so much about the facts.
i’ve already mentioned several times that mandylion is really good. and i’ll do it again. it’s one of the few albums (next to sentenced‘s frozen) where i like every track, to which i can listen for hours, again and again. so filled with energy, groove, raw power, emotions. so beautiful. (my favorite song is probably leaves, whose music video you can watch here.)
well, mandylion is their best album, i’d say, but they also have other good ones. one which i don’t really know—shame on me!—is nighttime birds, mandylion‘s successor, which seems to be very good, too. and there’s if_then_else, which has several really good tracks, like the melancholic saturnine or a beautiful instrumental called beautiful war.
somehow it’s really a pity that i never managed to see them.

“the day you went away
you had to screw me over
i guess you didn’t know
all the stuff you left me with
is way too much to handle
but i guess you don’t care”

from saturnine by the gathering.

just found something very cool on blabbermouth: on a guitar workshop, alexi laiho and roope latvala from the finnish melodic death metallers children of bodom played vivaldi on their guitars! more precisely: summer: presto (op. 4, concerto no. 2, mvt. 3) from the four seasons. check it out:

the first concert this year i attended was the progressive power metal band symphony x concert in hamburg, on last wednesday. symphony x were supported by dreamscape and circus maximus, two prog metal bands. the opener dreamscape was ok, but i really didn’t like circus maximus – mainly because of their singer, though. always when i couldn’t hear him i liked the music. sorry, but i can’t do anything against this, but a wrong singer can ruin the whole thing for me…
well, finally, symphony x entered the stage. i’ve already seen them last year, as an opener for dream theater, but then, they just played 40 minutes there and the audience was more waiting for dream theater than being enthusiastic about symphony x. but well, this was the opposite this time. one of the two friends with have been with me in hamburg said that this was basically the best concert he’s ever witnessed, and i think he’s quite right about that :) there were few concerts i’ve attended which i think were better… and one could also see that the guys on the stage really liked the concert. and they played through the looking glass, which i really appreciated. thank you guys! :)
unfortunately, this time, the concert hall wasn’t really filled, there were maybe 500 people, and the hall would have fittet 1000. i really feel sorry for symphony x, because they deserve much more!